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EGYPT-EXECUTION-PRISONERS-RIGHTS
Amnesty slams Egypt ‘execution spree’
BEIRUT, Dec 2, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Amnesty International on Wednesday
denounced a “horrifying execution spree” in Egypt, saying dozens of people
had been put to death in the past two months.
The UK-based rights group said that “in October and November alone, the
Egyptian authorities executed at least 57 men and women”, adding that this
was almost double the number for all of last year.
“The Egyptian authorities have embarked on a horrifying execution spree in
recent months… in some cases following grossly unfair mass trials,”
Amnesty’s regional research and advocacy director, Philip Luther, said in a
statement.
The rights group said the real number was likely to be higher “as Egyptian
authorities do not publish statistics on executions or the number of
prisoners on death row; nor do they inform families or lawyers in advance of
executions”.
Amnesty said it had been unable to independently verify pro-government
media reports of more than 30 additional executions during the same period.
The group said the “execution spree” followed an incident in September at
Cairo’s notorious Tora prison in which several policemen and death-row
prisoners were killed in a botched breakout attempt.
Human Rights Watch on October 22 said that Egypt had executed 49 prisoners
in the first half of that month alone.
Both organisations urged Egyptian authorities to “immediately halt”
executions.
Amnesty also denounced the country’s “rampant” use of torture.
It accused Egyptian authorities of cracking down on rights organisations
working on the issue of capital punishment, and cited the arrest last month
of staff from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.
Egypt has dismissed international criticism of those arrests.
Amnesty also cited the case of Wael Tawadros, a Coptic monk sentenced to
death over the killing of the abbot of a desert monastery in 2018.
Tawadros “was sentenced to death following a grossly unfair trial, where
the court relied on his torture-tainted ‘confessions’ to secure a
conviction,” Amnesty said.
His family told the group that Tawadros had been subject to
“discriminatory and punitive treatment” in prison.
Amnesty said the number of prisoners at risk of being executed was
unknown, citing authorities’ “lack of transparency”.
An ongoing, sweeping crackdown on dissent under Egyptian President Abdel
Fattah al-Sisi has seen the arrest of secular activists, journalists,
lawyers, academics and Islamists.
Rights groups estimate that about 60,000 detainees in Egypt are political
prisoners.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0912 hrs